New book release by Ray Wright: “If You Ain’t a Pilot…”

UXBRIDGE, MA – May 27, 2016 – IYAAP Blog – Cockpit chaos and classroom camaraderie fuel the entropic adventures of Second Lieutenant Ray Wright and his fellow classmates of UPT Class 88-07 at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi. Though competing against one another for the flying assignments of their dreams, like the fearsome F-15 and F-16 fighters, a good mission sometimes takes a backseat to a good party or punch line in this classroom of cut-ups.

The high stakes, however, loom over Lt. Wright. In a program where one out of three students fails, not everybody who starts UPT will finish it. And not everybody who does finish will get a desirable flying assignment. Some won’t even escape the Columbus Air Force Base. Will Lt. Wright get his dream assignment flying a C-141 cargo plane based out of beachside Charleston, South Carolina? Or be forced to perpetuate the If you ain’t a pilot… system as the dreaded FAIP (First Assignment Instructor Pilot) in Columbus, Mississippi?

Though a military memoir, IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT… is a story of youthful innocence, a happy tale of the best of friends. Beneath the story’s surface layer of how an Air Force officer’s aeronautical rating determines his worth, similar thematic layers unfold around gender, race, and other ways people define each other. At its core, my story is about people, our relationships, and how we choose to treat each other. While 30 years have passed since the memoir’s events—and our aircraft, our enemy, and our pop-culture ties have changed—we still struggle with our differences.

That said, my primary mission in writing IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT…is to make you laugh. If you don’t say, “Ow! Ow! My stomach hurts!” or call, “Knock it off!” while reading this book, I haven’t done my job. U. Unsat!

As we get closer to August 13th, please come back to my website for more details on the launch of my new book, IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT….

Thanks, Jen. I picked August 13th because it would have been my father’s 83rd birthday. He passed away several years ago, and I know he would have liked to have seen the release of this book. I look forward to learning what you think of it. Take care, Ray

Faith, family, and friendships, you were blessed with the love of all these gifts. You left home two weeks after your high school graduation, an eighteen year old boy to enter the USAFA and several years later you came back a man. “I have the aircraft.”